Wills and Probate

We provide individuals with advice and assistance in the preparation of their wills and testamentary documents. We also provide support, guidance and legal advice to family members and executors in the difficult time following the death of a loved one.

Our services in this area include:

Drafting and amending wills and testamentary documents

Advising and assisting executors in the administration of deceased estates

We act for a range of commercial clients in various industries. Our clients include large industrial and property companies as well as medium sized and small undertakings in the Hunter Region and Sydney. We also act for professional service providers including medical practices, dental practices, accounting firms, insolvency practitioners, architects and engineers. In addition, we provide legal advice to individual investors.

We provide the full range of legal advice and representation required by our commercial clients including the following areas:

Business acquisitions and mergers

Business structuring and succession planning

Leasing and general property advice

Development and property law

Commercial contract negotiation and drafting including tenders

Advice to companies and directors concerning their rights and obligations under the Corporations Act and the Competition and Consumer Act

Advice to shareholders and stakeholders in companies

Intellectual property including copyright, patent and trademarks

Administrative law

Defamation

Stamp duty and taxation

All aspects of employment law

Liquor Licensing and Gaming including the transfer of licenses and entitlements

We assist our commercial and individual clients in resolving a broad range of disputes. Our goal is to assist our clients navigate the difficult process of dispute resolution with minimal cost and disruption to business and productivity.

We offer expert negotiation and litigation skills, and strong commercial awareness. We take a proactive approach to resolving disputes, assessing the risks to our clients and seeking to obtain effective and commercial solutions at all times.

While we strive to keep our clients away from the formal and costly processes of court, where litigation is necessary we have advocacy experience that is second to none in the region.

We provide our clients with the full scope of legal advice and representation required in the resolution of a wide range disputes, including:

Our team includes specialist lawyers who focus solely on these types of matters and who have many years of experience of acting for employers, including in large scale national law firms.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our legal advice, and on the partnership we forge with our clients to assist achieve their commercial objectives and to manage their legal risks.

We provide advice in relation to the whole employment/contractor relationship from recruitment and hiring to termination. We have particular expertise in litigation before the Fair Work Commission, Federal Circuit Court (and Federal Court), Supreme, District and Local Courts, Australian Human Rights Commission (and the Anti-Discrimination Board) and the NSW Industrial Relations Tribunal. We also offer advocacy services where requested by clients.

Our expertise covers the following areas:

Employment law: the preparation and negotiation of contracts of employment, policies and procedures, remuneration and incentive structures, performance management, workplace investigations, termination of the employment relationship and all compliance related matters.

Industrial relations: the negotiation, drafting and interpretation of collective arrangements and assisting in relation to workplace disputes (including strike matters).

Work, health and safety: assisting clients understand their statutory and broader WH&S obligations, the management of workplace risks, and the defence of WH&S prosecutions (including what to do if a WorkCover inspector knocks on your door);

Business protection: the preparation and enforcement of business protection instruments and strategies, including obligations relating to confidential information, intellectual property, post-employment restrictions, conflicts of interest and fiduciary obligations.

Workplace investigations: assisting clients in the design and conduct of all workplace investigations, including the use of forensic and surveillance technologies.

Executive arrangements: the preparation and negotiation of executive employment arrangements, fiduciary obligations and dealing with the statutory restrictions on executive termination benefits.

Independent contractor arrangements: advising in respect of contracting arrangements, structures, and the employee aspects of outsourcing and in-sourcing arrangements.

Dispute resolution: where possible and appropriate, finding constructive (and non-litigious) solutions to workplace disputes. Where this is unavoidable, representing employers through the whole of the process.

Discrimination: the design and implementation of policies and procedures relating to anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and anti-bullying.

Training: provision of tailored workplace training.

Business sale/purchases: addressing the employment aspects of corporate restructures, the sale and purchase of businesses, corporate workforce structures and due diligence issues.

Conflict: providing access to our network of expert employment lawyers where a conflict arises and it is necessary to retain independent advice and/or representation.

We regularly act for liquidators, trustees and administrators. We have one of the most experienced insolvency teams in the region, and are well-placed to provide assistance nationally.

We also provide advice to companies and directors in relation to insolvency matters, in particular the appropriate strategy for minimising the risk to directors where the future of the company is uncertain. We provide similar advice to individuals in the context of personal bankruptcy.

We have expertise in providing advice to individuals, partnerships and corporations concerning the protection of assets and business goodwill into the future. The importance of this area of advice cannot be overstated both from a personal and commercial perspective. We consider it our role to provide our clients with the security of knowing that the future of their assets and property will be protected, to the greatest extent possible, in accordance with their long term goals.

We provide individual and corporate clients will the full scope of property law advice and assistance. Our many years of experience in property transaction work creates a strong practice of which we are very proud.

We have expertise in all areas of property law including the following: